XCOM: Viral Offense
by Fw00sh
Summary: Seven years after the infection of Manhattan, Mercer is bored. When a new threat to the world arises along with a whole new team to combat it, Mercer definitely isn't bored anymore. One thing is for sure, the aliens are in for nasty surprise. Rated for language and violence.
1. Chapter 1

XCOM: Viral Offense

Chapter 1

In a way, Mercer's life, if you could even call it that, had been defined by sound. Those first few weeks had been permeated with the staccato of gunfire and screams of the dying, the moans and growls of the infected only adding to the hellish choir.

As the conflict escalated, a variety of explosions joined the orchestra and the armaments of the tanks and helicopters together provided an admittedly impressive percussion section. Many of his personal contributions were drowned out by the louder artillery, but privately he thought that the squelch of claws slicing through flesh and bone was just as satisfying.

As fun as that was, like all good things it eventually came to an end. That end was definitely quite explosive, and not just because of the nuke that went off in his face. One disintegration and messy reconstitution via crow later, Mercer was back, but his symphony was gone. The infected force scattered once Elizabeth Greene was gone, and with most of their officers dead Blackwatch wasn't in a much better state. In weeks Manhattan was almost clear of infection, and slowly but surely things began to return to normal.

The city was quieter than he had ever heard it, and time seemed to pass so slowly that he could barely stand the stillness. There was no enemy to fight, no target to consume, no revenge to be gained. Those silent days were the worst he ever knew, and the urge to consume and slaughter grew with every pedestrian that passed peacefully on the street below. He would have given in to it, if not for her.

Seven years and a global catastrophe later, the orchestra returned to Manhattan. It was rather diminished, as it seemed no one had bothered to bring out the tanks this time, but it was nevertheless impressive. Green flashes lit the panicked streets, and unearthly shrieks accompanied the more mundane cacophony of screams.

For Mercer, it was pure music. The sounds of destruction were like a long lost ballad, a dance whose steps he remembered all too well. It didn't take more than a minute for him to dash across town to one of the few stockpiles he'd set up after the first infection, and in his excitement it took even less time to get back to the battlefield and onto a conveniently located rooftop.

Hefting an oblong tube over his shoulder, Mercer gave a rare grin to the combatants below. As fun as it was to fight up close and personal, if there was one thing he couldn't resist it was a good explosion. After all, what better way is there to introduce yourself than with a bang?

* * *

"Strike One this is Central. United States authorities have requested our help. We've gotten reports of alien activity taking place in a densely populated urban center. You should move to secure the area and minimize further civilian casualties."

Lt. "Vampire" Ramirez couldn't help but feel a familiar sense of dread as the Skyranger approached the drop site. He was a sniper, the best XCOM had to offer, but just because he fought from a distance didn't mean he couldn't see the horrors of a terror mission. Watching one of those huge bug things rip your squaddies apart, and then having to shoot their shambling corpses down before they burst out more monstrosities, that was something you never forgot.

However, since strong emotional suppression is practically a requirement for promotion, the lieutenant had little difficulty keeping a straight face. Looking around at his squadmates, he could tell not all of them were capable of the same. The two sergeants, Haddad and Santiago, seemed equally stoic, but he could tell from Haddad's shaking "Magic Hands" that the medic wasn't quite as calm as he looked.

The two rookies on the other hand, seemed far more interested in debating ethics or something rather than contemplating the inevitability of their deaths. Well, to be fair to Cpl. Green she wasn't really a rookie, but Ramirez had never been on a mission with her before so she was about as predictable as one. Jackson, on the other hand, was definitely worthy of the term. He really shouldn't have even been there, but after a poorly aimed grenade had left most of the other soldiers in the infirmary there weren't exactly a lot to choose from when the mission alert blared to life.

"I'm just saying, why do we even have to go down and fight them?" said Jackson, oblivious to Green's quickly growing irritation and the lieutenant's silent interest. "We know where the aliens are. We have bombs. Seems pretty simple to me."

"Because," growled Green, gripping her rifle ever more tightly, "there are civilians down there who aren't exactly immune to bombings. It's right in the middle of fucking Manhattan. Don't you think someone would get upset if we just dropped a nuke on it?"

Jackson shrugged. "Whatever, lady, don't come crying to me when those bug monsters have turned all your precious civilians into meat puppets."

Green was practically trembling with rage, but before she could act on it Ramirez stood up. The lieutenant looked calm, but it was a calm like that found in the center of a hurricane.

"Jackson, is that any way to speak to a superior officer?" he said slowly, tension building with every word. Jackson merely gaped, so the lieutenant repeated himself. "I said, rookie, is that any way to speak to your superior officer?"

Breaking out of his stupor, the rookie mumbled a quick, "No sir," and quickly took to staring at the floor.

"Well then," continued the lieutenant, "You shouldn't be surprised to learn that we are going to have a rather lengthy talk when we get back to base. Right now, sit down, shut up, and prep for landing. We've got aliens to kill."

It could have taken a second or a century, but after a veritable eternity of angry glares and mumbled insults the Skyranger finally reached the landing zone. True to their training, the squad filed out, scanning the area for hostiles and civilians. Screams and explosions could be heard nearby, but the immediate area seemed to be clear, even if it was partially on fire. Keeping his eyes peeled for movement, Ramirez sent out the standard call.

"Central this is Big Sky. Confirm signal uplink. Strike team is in position near the terror site. Awaiting confirmation."

Waiting for the static of the coms to solidify into an answer, the lieutenant once again took stock of his surroundings. The squad seemed alert and ready, although the rookie looked like he'd already forgotten his orders and was prodding with his rifle at a pile of rubble rather than maintaining his position. He was about to give the idiot another good shouting at when the static cleared and Central returned his call.

"Solid copy Big Sky. Strike One has been given the green light. Your highest priority is to protect those civilians."

There was an odd pause in the explosions after the transmission, and perhaps the lieutenant would have paid more attention to it if not for the sudden scream that pierced the silence.

"Contact!" yelled Green over the coms, and Ramirez immediately whipped around with his sniper rifle. Jackson was flat on his back, and looming over him was a horribly familiar shape.

Hanging half out of the rubble, yellow ichor pouring from its black chitin and its glowing eyes staring unblinkingly, was the one creature that had ever given the lieutenant nightmares. It was a chryssalid, and it was only as it literally fell to pieces over the screaming rookie that he realized that it was also very, very dead.


	2. Chapter 2

XCOM: Viral Offense

Chapter Two

"Jackson, forget the dead bug already and get your ass over here." After the initial moment of adrenaline and the solid thirty seconds of annoyance that followed, Lt. Ramirez had officially had enough of this shit. He was seriously considering how this idiot had even gotten hired at all.

It had taken that long to pull the rookie out from under the chryssalid's messy remains and for Haddad to give him a quick check over, but the moment the rookie had realized the creature was dead he had started babbling about how they should examine it. Where the hell did they even get these people?

"But look at this, sir," he had said, poking at the dead monstrosity with the butt of his rifle even as they lifted the largest piece off of him. "It's like all cut to pieces by claws or some shit. What could have done that?"

Although the lieutenant was honestly wondering about that himself, he really didn't have time for this. "Jackson, I don't care if it's your long lost cousin, we need to get a move on. In case you've forgotten, there are civvies getting eaten by these things right now, and if you don't hurry up and move your ass I'm going to light a fire under it myself."

As if to illustrate his point, explosions once again began to punctuate the various screams and shrieks. The rest of the squad, who had been doing their actual jobs and begun to scout the surrounding block, started moving through cover towards the source of the sound. Ramirez took up the rear, ready to pop any alien that dared to raise its ugly head into his line of sight.

"Okay men," he said over the coms, "This is it. Green and Jackson, scout ahead and keep your eyes peeled for any civilians. Tell any you find to head towards the Skyranger, and for God's sake if you run into any hostiles learn the meaning of tactical retreat."

As they began to move out, taking opposite sides of the street, Ramirez addressed the sergeants. "Haddad, stay behind them and keep a lookout for any X-Rays. Be ready to use that magic of yours when the new guys start losing limbs." The lieutenant looked over at Santiago, who was already prepping his rocket launcher. "Dozer, just do what you do best."

* * *

Mercer was having fun. He had a nice pile of rockets, there were plenty of moving targets, and the occasional bug thing or flying torso that made it up to his perch gave him a chance to stretch his claws.

The buffet was a rather mixed bag, though. The flying things were all over the place, but after he consumed one of them he internally vowed to never do so again. They definitely weren't human, but that wasn't the problem. To partially quote a film he had never actually seen through more than his meals' memories, they were more machine than alien monster man thing.

He ended up spewing out various bits of machinery for at least ten minutes, but as obnoxious as it was he had to admit it was hilarious to knock more of them out of the sky with parts expelled from his biomass.

The bugs, on the other tentacle, were simply delicious, which was especially impressive considering he had no sense of taste. The only problem, though, was getting them into a position where he could consume them in the first place.

When one of them had first managed to leap onto his rooftop, he seriously underestimated its speed. The few swiping strikes he could get on it with his claws had only barely pierced its chitinous armor, and when he tried to crush it with his arms in hammer form things went from bad to worse.

With a swipe of its razor sharp legs one of his arms went flying, and before he had time to even react it had him pinned to the ground. Unfortunately for the bug, injecting the living virus with its spawn turned out to be a less than stellar plan.

Rejuvenated by the essentially force fed biomass, Mercer abandoned any pretense of subtlety and let loose with a smaller version of one of his signature "devastators". Black spikes erupted from his body, impaling the alien looming above him. It shrieked and struggled to escape, but any chance it may have had at freedom was obliterated when feeder tentacles engulfed it.

Consuming the creature was definitely an experience. Its size alone gave him plenty to absorb, but the fact that it was stuffed with dozens of what he assumed were eggs gave him plenty of fresh cells to work with. The carapace was thick and difficult to break down, but once he finished it seemed almost perfect for adding on to his armored form.

As he got back onto his feet and retrieved his severed arm, Mercer considered the alien's DNA. Unsurprisingly it wasn't human either, but it really was completely foreign to him. It was still consumable, but it would definitely take him some time to puzzle out. He really wanted to, though, since not only was its armor quite impressive but whatever toxin had been on its claws seemed like it would be quite deadly to anything that actually had vital organs.

The next time one jumped up to join him, he was ready. This time he went straight for the legs, wrapping them up with his whipfist to stop it from striking. He might have gotten a bit overenthusiastic with his claws after that, since that particular bug ended up all over the roof, and even the one after that ended up sailing a couple blocks away.

Unfortunately, as fun as it was to just blow up aliens and occasionally eat them, he should have realized it was inevitable that someone would decide to crash the party. Honestly, it was downright depressing. Here he was, not even threatening the general populace, and yet he was starting to hear the signs of a very small but incoming plane, probably full of some military strike team.

Of course they might just be coming to deal with the aliens, but either way it would ruin his fun. Besides, Mercer had learned over his seven years of life and especially those first few weeks that paranoia was always the best option.

Now he had a dilemma. He could do the smart thing and leave to avoid attention, but then the military guys would probably just get eaten or shot and then all the random civilians hiding in buildings would receive the undivided attention of the rampaging aliens.

As always in New York, there were also those civilians that decided to simply waltz through the monster infested streets. Mercer was pretty sure he'd been able to snag most of them, and had thoughtfully deposited them in an increasing crowded rooftop shed. They were still shouting at him on occasion, so he was pretty sure they were still alive.

However, if he was to leave then they were almost guaranteed to become alien chow. Then Dana would be disappointed in him, and that was something the nigh-invulnerable humanoid virus would rather immerse himself in Bloodtox than endure.

As he reloaded his rocket launcher and aimed it at a particularly thick cloud of floaters, Mercer pondered the dilemma. Moral issues weren't really his area of expertise, but thinking deeply about it didn't really help, since that just invited the host of voices in his head to shout their own opinions at him. The fact that quite a few of them were psychopathic killers didn't exactly help.

He was considering digging around in his biomass to try and find that cell phone his sister had given him, but before he could even start the sounds of the approaching vehicle turned into those of landing. It was a couple blocks away, but for him that was close enough.

Continuing to draw the attention of the aliens with his few remaining rockets, Mercer listened closely as the thump of heavy boots on metal indicated exiting soldiers. As they started to speak over what was presumably a radio he paid extra attention. Whatever these guys were up to, he wasn't about to let himself be taken by surprise.


	3. Chapter 3

XCOM: Viral Offense

Chapter Three

As Ramirez tracked the movement of the rookies through the scope of his shiny new laser sniper rifle, he couldn't help but feel slightly perplexed They'd traveled three blocks without a single hostile contact, and if that wasn't unsettling enough, those streets hadn't been exactly clean either. Dead floaters and even a few chryssalids practically littered them, and even though the signs of a number of explosions seemed to indicate the cause of death, it didn't account for all of them.

As Greene and Jackson threaded their way through the remains, they encountered quite a few odder casualties. The floaters with prominent stab wounds could have perhaps been the result of impatient bugs, but the chryssalid impaled on a street lamp was less easily explained away.

As grim as the scene was, there was also an unusual lack of civilians, dead or alive. In fact, the only civilian any of them had encountered was an old man that had threatened to viciously beat Jackson with his cane when the rookie had tried to check out the locked apartment building he was taking shelter in.

But as the squad advanced, the sound of explosions and alien shrieks only grew closer. From the sound of it they were at most a block away from the battle now, and Green was reporting that she could definitely see rocket fire coming from one of the higher roofs. Green plasma was practically bathing the position, but from the continued stream of rockets it apparently wasn't doing any damage.

Whoever, or for that matter whatever, was fighting the aliens was doing a damn good job at it, but Ramirez had to wonder. If this mystery man was holding off the hordes with a rocket launcher, what would happen when he ran out of rockets?

* * *

Mercer was out of rockets. It was truly a pathetic thing, a rocket launcher without rockets. But, as bleak as its shattered existence was, Mercer was pretty sure there was one last thing he could use it for. Looking down at the battered battlefield, where the remaining aliens were cowering behind some wrecked cars, he spotted one of the very few untouched vehicles parked nearby.

Concentrating biomass into his arms, Mercer grabbed the launcher with both hands, took aim, and waited. Patience wasn't exactly one of his favorite traits, but maybe just this once he could make an exception. Besides, he loved making a good entrance.

* * *

This was it. Green and Jackson had confirmed hostiles, although it seemed that so far the rookies had managed to avoid detection themselves. The stream of rockets had finally subsided, and movement from the group of about a dozen floaters it had been suppressing showed they had taken notice of their sudden freedom.

Ordering the rookies to hold position and lay low, Ramirez and the two sergeants quickly caught up with them and took cover as well. The lieutenant was honestly surprised the aliens hadn't spotted them yet, but he wasn't exactly about to complain about it.

Zeroing in on one of the more cautious floaters, Ramirez watched as the rest of the squad followed his example and picked out their own targets. Looking back into the scope of his rifle, the sniper made some small final adjustments and took a deep breath inward.

Right as the breath was let out an explosion rocked the battlefield. Ramirez missed his target's head by an inch, and as he looked up to see what had happened he immediately spotted the source. One of the cars had gone up in flames, and although he hadn't seen the impact personally he gathered from Jackson's panicked babble that something from the roof had hit it hard enough to crush one end of the vehicle almost flat.

Meanwhile, the rest of the squad had opened fire upon the aliens, although the floaters seemed more intent on escape than retaliation. They rocketed upward, and Ramirez swore as he rushed to set up another shot. Chasing floaters down was hard enough in the countryside, but in a city? A quick jump over the rooftops and the bastards would be damn near impossible to find.

As great as his frustration was, though, in an instant it was replaced by complete and utter shock. A dark streak flashed skywards from the rooftops, and in less than a moment had attached itself to the highest alien. The sudden collision unbalanced the already panicked floater, causing it to launch itself right into a building instead of upward.

The dark figure was undeterred by the impact, and instead of slamming into it, grabbed onto the wall with one hand and the stunned alien with the other. The captive floater didn't have long to ponder its situation, as it was immediately launched with blinding speed directly towards one of its comrades.

There was a terrible screech of metal striking metal and they both fell to the ground unmoving, but before they even landed the figure was on the move again. Ramirez tracked it with his rifle, and as it grabbed yet another floater out of the air he was surprised to find it looked extremely human. At least, of course, until it sprouted claws and started slicing the alien apart limb from limb.

Recovered from their surprise, Green and Santiago opened fire once again on the floaters, and after a moment Jackson and Haddad did as well. Ramirez targeted any that tried to escape, his rifle's laser drilling neat holes right through their skulls.

All the while, the humanoid creature continued its dance. Not once did it touch the ground, using floaters as springboards as it leapt from one to another. Green plasma flashed all around it, but only once was it hit with even a glancing shot. As it was from plasma, this wound was of course a large hole in the creature's side, but that didn't seem to slow it down in the slightest. In fact, when Ramirez next glanced at it the hole was simply gone, as if it had never been there to begin with. Even the thing's hoodie was intact!

With the floaters under fire from above and below, it wasn't long at all until only one remained. Having witnessed the destruction of its brethren, the floater ducked down instead of up, but in the end the result was the same. The dark creature, still hanging in the air over its latest kill, changed its arms once again, this time turning one into an enormous blade.

Like a guillotine it fell downward, its trajectory directly towards the fleeing alien. Like a knife through butter it sliced right into the floater, moving as smoothly through its metal body as it did through its flesh. When it finally hit the ground the blade went several inches into the concrete as well, but the creature had no difficulty removing its blood-spattered arm from the street.

And so they stood, monster and man staring intently at each other from across the blood covered street. Every gun was trained on the creature, but not a single dared to fire. For its part the creature looked rather unimpressed, leaning casually against its bladed arm buried slightly into the concrete. Ramirez still couldn't get over how human it looked. If it wasn't for the bloody sword for an arm it could have passed for a normal pedestrian, although admittedly one with a slightly odd taste in clothing.

Then the voices started. For a second the lieutenant thought he was finally going crazy, but then he realized it was just his communications line. It seemed like every single scientist was trying to talk to him at once, all intent on studying this new creature. He was surprised he didn't hear Dr. Vahlen, the head of research, among the throng of voices, but for whatever reason she had chosen to remain silent about this new development.

Fortunately, it wasn't long at all before Central took control of the line and silenced the horde. The creature's stance loosened a bit more as the radio quieted down, as if it was relieved by the silence as well. For all Ramirez knew it was.

And so it was down to him. The fate of his squad depended on his next decision, and if this creature was allied with the aliens perhaps the fate of the Earth itself as well. Since it had just been happily carving them up he doubted it, but he also didn't doubt that if it chose to it could destroy his squad just as easily.

The tense silence lasted a few moments longer, but finally Ramirez made his decision. Slowly, the lieutenant lowered his rifle. The rest of the squad followed his example, some more quickly than others, but before long not a single gun was raised. The creature dismissed its weapon as well, changing the bladed arm back to its more human form. Ramirez opened his mouth to speak, but the creature beat him to it.

"There's a shed full of civilians up on that roof," it said, pointing up at the building it had been perched on previously, "If you still want to save them, of course." Its voice sounded kind of like it had been gargling marbles, but the lieutenant could definitely hear a bit of disbelief on that last part.

Not skipping a beat, Ramirez replied, "Yes, of course we do." Breaking eye contact with the creature for the first time since it had landed, the lieutenant turned to Green and Jackson. "You heard him, you two. Get your asses on that roof and go check on those civvies."

Jackson looked like he wanted to protest, but Green grabbed him by the arm and dragged him along with her. As they ran into the building, Ramirez turned back to the creature. "So, how do you feel about killing aliens?"

"Sounds like fun," it replied, its face twisting into a grin.

"In that case it sounds like we could get along just fine. Killing aliens is our job, afterall. We're the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit, but you can call us XCOM." The lieutenant walked up to creature and offered it his hand. "You can call me Vampire."

The creature continued to grin, but it took his hand and shook it. "Zeus. You can call me Zeus."


	4. Chapter 4

XCOM: Viral Offense

Chapter 4

Alex Mercer, recently revealed to yet another top secret organization under the codename of 'Zeus', was perplexed. This was mostly due to the circumstances of the aforementioned revelation, which were odd even by his standards. Of course, the major reason it was so odd was that he hadn't eaten any of them, but the rest of the experience had been similarly unusual.

He was the infamous Dr. Mercer, the Monster of Manhattan, killer, monster, and terrorist. Admittedly, XCOM didn't seem to know all of that, but they had seen him in action and that was enough for most organizations he'd encountered to put him on the "kill on sight" list. Or at least the "shoot at and be brutally murdered by" list.

Despite that, this group had reacted in a way he had never even considered. As the civilians were escorted down from the roof, some refusing to leave the building until he stepped into an alley out of their sight, 'Vampire' seemed to be in an argument with someone over his coms. From what Mercer could hear, and that was all of it, it was with the man's superiors, who seemed at odds over what to do about the viral abomination in the room.

Finally they reached some kind of consensus, and right as the last of the civvies were herded off of the scene the soldier once again approached Mercer. Previous experience told him to expect an attempt at capture, but what he got was completely different. It was a job offer. They wanted him to come with them to their base, join their secret alien killing club, and pay him to slaughter things. It was simply unbelievable.

He'd replied that he'd have to think about it, and honestly that was what he was trying to do as the soldiers began gathering together the bodies and broken weapons of the aliens. One soldier, who had apparently been assigned to watch him, was trying to explain standard mission procedure to him while dragging a pulverized bug towards the alien pile.

"Normally the cleanup team takes care of this part of a mission, but after we first ran into chryssalids there was an incident where one of the dead bugs wasn't quite as dead as we thought it was," she said, indicating towards the insectile corpse she was towing before continuing, "Now whenever the things show up we need to stay on site just to make sure they don't get back up and eat the cleaners. They actually should be showing up soon, so don't be surprised when they arrive."

Having deposited her burden on the growing corpse pile, the soldier continued to attempt conversation with Mercer, perhaps interpreting his silence as interest. Meanwhile, he was trying to figure out why one of his shoulders was vibrating. Focusing intensely on his internal biomass, he could definitely feel some small but solid mass lodged in it. It didn't feel like a bullet, although it could possibly be a piece of debris that had gotten caught in one of his transformations.

Intrigued, he immediately began digging through his biomass with a hand. It wasn't painful, as he merely had to part the flesh around the searching appendage, but from the sudden look of shock and disgust on the soldier's face it wasn't exactly a pretty thing to watch. Grabbing the mysterious object and removing it from his shoulder, Mercer examined what he had unearthed. Oh, that was where his phone had gone.

Drawing on the accumulated experience of hundreds, he expertly flipped it open only to nearly drop it when he saw who was calling. It was Dana, his beloved kind-of sister that he was supposed to be spending "quality time" with today. Fuck.

Crouching down, Mercer began focusing biomass into his legs. "Sorry," he said to the still slightly stunned soldier, "I've got to take this call." With that he launched himself skywards, landing perfectly on the roof above. Now far below, the soldier was still in the act of stumbling backwards, but he paid her no mind. He had an angry sister to appease.

Accepting the call and holding the phone up to his ear, Mercer prepared to accept his fate with dignity. He didn't even have a chance to say hello.

"What the fuck did you do this time Alex?" Well, so much for hoping she wasn't too upset.

Using his best 'innocent' voice, which even he knew was shit, he attempted to defuse the situation. "What are you talking about Dana? I know I'm kind of late but …"

"You heard me, what the hell did you do this time? There's six square blocks of upper Manhattan roped off by the police, you could hear explosions from Times Square, and a fuck-ton of suspicious black vans were just escorted past the police barricade. Tell me what happened, if you're okay, and exactly how soon we need to be out of the country."

"Black vans?" he repeated, and sure enough he could see a convoy of them approaching down the street. Instinctually he crouched out of sight, but fortunately it turned out to be unnecessary. He had feared they contained more soldiers, but instead the vans let out what looked like rather ordinary workmen, probably the cleanup crew that soldier had been talking about earlier.

Getting back to his feet, he turned back to the phone as they began loading up the dead aliens, "Yeah, that's just the cleaners. Nothing to worry about."

"Nothing to worry about!? What the fuck does that even mean!? And you still haven't told me what's happening down there! If you pissed off another government agency just to avoid going shopping with me than you're even more of a dumbass than I thought you were!"

"Look, Dana, it honestly wasn't my fault this time. It's not like the thing in Boston with the hobo, I admit I made a mistake that time and you were totally justified in your response. The spray bottle was a reasonable punishment, even if I think six months was slightly excessive. It isn't my fault that aliens started crawling out of the woodwork and setting everything on fire."

There was a moment of silence, and when she responded concern was overtaking anger. "Wait a minute, Alex, do you mean to tell me that there were honest to fuck aliens right here in Manhattan? Jesus, you're okay, aren't you? Please don't tell me all those explosions were them shooting you."

Mercer laughed, a rare sound when he wasn't ripping things to shreds. "I'm fine, Dana. And as for the explosions, well, I kind of found a rocket launcher."

His sister laughed as well, a sound far more melodious to his ears than even the largest of explosions. "Okay, now I know you're bullshitting me. How did you just find a rocket launcher?"

"Exactly the same way I found all the rockets. I just looked where I hid them after last time."

"Wow, Alex, and sometimes I think you're almost done being a paranoid lunatic. Now seriously, go back to the beginning and tell me what the fuck happened in there. I still need to know how soon I need to start packing."

And so he told her, starting with how he first spotted the strange green flashes while traveling the rooftops and ending with the location of the phone in his shoulder. She was mostly quiet, only asking a few clarifying questions, until he recalled his standoff with XCOM.

"Wait," she said, "You seriously expect me to believe you ran into a secret military organization, showed off your freaky superpowers, and not only did they not shoot you, but you didn't eat them either? Fuck, Alex, and I thought the aliens were going to be the weirdest part."

"And they offered me a job," he reminded her, taking a second to glance down at the XCOM squad once more. The cleanup crew was just about done, so presumably the only reason they were still here was to hear his answer.

"Fuck, I must have blocked that part out because of just how fucking crazy it is. Are you sure it isn't just a trap?"

"No, but they seemed pretty sincere. I'd have to eat one to be sure, but then I don't think they'd want to hire me anymore."

Dana gave a light chuckle before continuing. "No, I don't think they would either. So, if it isn't a trap, what are they offering to pay you?"

Mercer had to think about it for a second before answering. He'd been more in shock from the offer itself to pay much attention to the details. "Um, I think it was open for negotiation?"

"Open for negotiation? Hmm, we'll see about that. Alex, you stay right there. This is something you need a professional to take care of." With that she hung up, and Mercer couldn't help but feel a sense of imminent dread. What was his sister plotting?

He definitely didn't need to wait long for an answer, because not more than thirty seconds later there was an impressive crash from the direction of the police barricade. Sure enough, there was his sister's truck, barreling right towards the XCOM squad from a rather distinct hole in the blockade.

Mercer leaped to the ground, landing directly between the speeding truck and the rather alarmed squad. The truck swerved to slow down, finally coasting to a stop less than a foot from Mercer. Dana stumbled out from the driver's seat, disoriented but determined.

Mercer moved forward to assist her but she dismissed him with a glare. Instead she turned to the XCOM squad, who were becoming increasingly confused.

"Who's in charge here," she said, pushing past Mercer as he continued to try and keep her away from the squad.

Vampire took a step forward, nodding in the direction of the glaring woman. "I am ma'am. What exactly are you doing here and how do you know Zeus?"

Mercer attempted to say something but Dana merely shushed him again. "I'm this idiot's sister, and if you want to abduct him into your secret society you're going to have to go through me first. There's going to be no experiments, no threats to keep him in your service, and there's definitely going to be some discussion over the fucking salary."

Vampire looked shocked for a second, but quickly began relaying what she had said to his superiors through the coms. Once he finished, he addressed her once more. "All of that is acceptable, although I can't say we planned on experimenting on him in the first place. You'll have to talk to the commander about the salary, though. Does that mean you're coming with us as well, miss …?"

"Athena," she said, locking arms with her brother, "You can call me Athena, and me and Zeus here aren't going anywhere unless we're together."


	5. Chapter 5

XCOM: Viral Offense

Chapter 5

As relaxing as it was to be trapped in a confined space for several hours with the military and his sister, Mercer had to admit that when he heard the sounds of the landing gear engaging he could have jumped for joy. Of course, for all he knew there were Blackwatch kill teams and a battalion of tanks waiting for him outside, but at least then he'd have something to do.

While Dana had spent most of the trip asking the squad various questions about XCOM itself, Alex had been restricted to merely glaring from under his hood at them. Asking had never been his preferred method of information gathering, so as long as the soldiers stayed non-hostile he was content to let Dana deal with that particular task.

Although painfully slow compared to his personal method of interrogation, his sister's technique was nothing if not effective. There was a reason she was an investigative journalist, and it was never clearer than when she was attempting to browbeat a group of hardened soldiers into telling her their every secret.

Regardless, by the time they finally landed Mercer was ready to start climbing the walls. In fact, he was actually considering doing it just to see the looks on the soldiers' faces when the hiss of the emerging landing gear told him they had reached their destination. Moments later the plane landed with a jolting thud, and as the exit ramp lowered and the squad filed out the siblings got their first glimpse of the XCOM base.

Rather predictably they were in a hanger, although the exposed stone ceiling made it quite clear that they were underground. All around them technicians and engineers attended to the various vehicles, but Mercer's attention was elsewhere. Looking high up the stone shaft, he could just make out a quickly shrinking circle of light, their entrance, and, if necessary, their escape route.

As interesting as a ceiling is to someone who runs up buildings for sport, a quick jab in the side from his sister brought his attention back to ground level. Emerging from an open doorway was an older man absorbed with something on his clipboard. He was dressed in a variation of the same green and grey uniform that seemed standard for base personnel, although under the unzipped green sweater a white shirt and red tie were visible as well.

A deliberate cough from one of the soldiers tore the man's gaze from the clipboard, letting it settle onto the two visitors. Mumbling out an apology, he began an introduction of sorts.

"Greetings, my name is Dr. Shen and I'm the head of engineering here. I assume you two are Zeus and Athena?" Taking their silence as an affirmative, he continued, "Right. Well, to be blunt this sort of thing isn't exactly in my area of expertise, but due to certain circumstances I will be handling your introduction to our operation here."

His sister seemed satisfied with the explanation, but the elder Mercer definitely wasn't. "What circumstances?" he growled, glaring at the man. "Is the plan for you to distract us while your superiors close the net around us? Because if it is, well, I think you'll regret it." In response to his anger alone his arms began to ripple, and all along them small red and black tentacles began to writhe threateningly.

Dana immediately grabbed him by the arm as if to hold him back, totally disregarding the tendrils licking its surface as it prepared to change shape. The soldiers tensed their weapons, but for his part the doctor remained remarkably calm. Seemingly ignorant of the paranoid viral monstrosity before him, he merely removed his glasses and began to clean them on his sweater before answering.

"Young man, there is no need to become so upset over a mere choice of words. The circumstances I mentioned are of availability, not part of some grand scheme to ensnare you." Finished polishing them, he calmly placed the glasses back on his face, not even pausing in his speech to do so.

"The central officer and the commander are busy dealing with business of their own, and our lead scientist instructed all of her staff to avoid you for the time being. Since none of our recruiters live on base and aren't available here on short notice, I was the only remaining alternative. So calm yourself, because the sooner this is over the faster I can get back to my actual job."

Mercer grunted noncommittally, but the cessation of movement in his arms confirmed that he accepted the man's words. Convinced he wasn't about to go on a murder spree, Dana let go of him before turning to the doctor herself.

"Sorry about that. He just has this thing about secretive military organizations that transport him to undisclosed locations," she said, no smidgen of apology present in her voice, "Anyway, what's first on the agenda?"

"Well," he said, checking his clipboard once again, "First on the list is introducing myself and second is confirming that you aren't hostile aliens intent on killing us all the moment you enter the base proper. We can check off the first, but from Zeus's little display a moment ago I can't be so sure about the second one."

Dana nodded. "I can understand that. I for one am perfectly human and you can even run some tests if you want to double check." Mercer gave her a glare at that last statement, but she merely rolled her eyes at him. "Don't you start again you big idiot. A few needles won't kill me."

Dr. Shen quickly scribbled a few notes onto his clipboard before moving on. "Well, Athena, if that's true than you are perfectly welcome to enter. Is your brother human as well?"

As talkative as she was, Dana struggled to find the right words. The moments dragged on, and when it became clear she couldn't think of the right way to say it Alex answered the question himself.

"No," he said, "I'm not human. Technically I never have been, and technically I'm not even her brother, although we have agreed to treat each other as such. I am also not an alien, and I didn't explicitly know or care to know that they existed until I started fighting them a couple hours ago. I don't plan on attempting to massacre your base, but if you threaten me or my sister I won't hesitate to. Is that good enough?"

"Quite," replied the doctor, still writing on his clipboard, "I suspect you aren't going to tell me what you actually are then?"

"No, and it's none of your business."

The man sighed, but scribbled down the answer regardless, "I suppose I could argue that, but for now I think it's time for us to move on." Attaching the clipboard to his belt, he turned away from the Mercers to address the squad of soldiers still standing by. "Lieutenant," he said, "Tell your men to head back to the barracks. You can accompany us on this little tour."

Vampire nodded in confirmation, and with a wave of his hand the rest of the squad hurried off to the barracks. Dr. Shen turned right around and went through the door he had come from, not even checking to see if his unusual little tour group was even following. The soldier kept right up with him, but the siblings lagged behind.

Mercer's gaze drifted back to the skylight, and silently he wondered when he'd next see the sunlight. When Dana next would.

"Dana," he whispered, "Should we really have come here with them? What if they're lying and it's just another trap? What if they …?" Whatever he said next was suddenly muffled, mostly due to the hand clapped over his face. He gave the offending appendage an irritated glare, but it refused to budge until he stopped muttering entirely.

"Are you done yet?" his sister asked, wiping her hand off on his jacket. "I know you don't trust them, and neither do I entirely, but these are good guys." His expression was incredulous, but she went on regardless. "Don't give me that look, either; I know what I'm talking about. You may not give a fuck about current events, but I do, and XCOM has been all over them. Never officially, and never under that name, but they've been out there, fighting aliens and saving people all over the world for the last two months at least."

"That doesn't mean they won't hurt us," he muttered, gaze once again skyward. "What if it's a trap anyway?"

"Then I'm sure you'll go crazy tentacle monster on them and we'll make our daring escape through that hole in the ceiling you keep staring at. Now hurry up, we're going to miss our tour."

Grabbing ahold of an arm she started dragging him through the still open door, and reluctantly he followed. With a mechanical hiss the large metal door closed shut, sealing them into a strange new world.


	6. Chapter 6

XCOM: Viral Offense

Chapter 6

Dr. Vahlen was not panicking. The prototype plasma rifle she had been working on definitely wasn't in her trembling hands, and she surely wasn't watching that _thing_ go on a tour through the security feed in her personal lab. The fact that it occasionally glared at the aforementioned security cameras didn't send shivers down her spine, and there's no way she nearly jumped out of her chair when it tapped Shen's shoulder to draw him out of what was presumably one of his rants about the inefficiency of the geosphere to display information. And no, she wasn't in denial either.

However, as she utterly terrified and nearly fried yet another hapless scientist that had the misfortune to walk too close to her door, she had to admit the truth. There was an extremely deadly and highly unpredictable biological weapon waltzing around XCOM's headquarters, and here she was hiding in her office. Rising from her seat, Vahlen cursed her cowardice. She had to act now, before that thing decided to stop playing with them and cut to the chase.

Plasma rifle still in hand, the scientist checked the figure on the screen one final time. It was in the barracks at the moment, leaving her a clear path to the situation room. The commander would be in a meeting now, but the council could wait when the safety of the entire base was at stake.

Before she left, however, there was one final item she needed to procure. In the bottom drawer of her desk, buried under a pile of autopsy reports, was a large canister. It had been a keepsake, a reminder of what had driven her to her current purpose, but now it would have a more practical use. Stowing it under her lab coat, Vahlen let herself feel a small smidgen of hope. At least now she had a weapon that she knew would work.

And so she stormed out of the lab, leaving in her wake a number of highly confused and slightly panicked scientists. As a team they had dissected chryssalids, interrogated sectoids, and picked apart cyberdiscs, but none dared to try and stop her. There are many words that could be used to describe the scientists of XCOM; ingenious, unhinged, brilliant, and sadistically psychotic, but as they watched Dr. Vahlen march determinedly towards the elevator none of them felt like adding suicidal to the list.

* * *

Mercer was bored. At first he'd been too busy keeping watch for inevitable betrayal to be bored, but after Dr. Shen started going off about the efficiency of the room's architecture even he began to have trouble working up a proper paranoia. Engineers had never been a large part of his diet, so the doctor's jargon littered speech was rather difficult to follow and near impossible to afford any actual interest.

As he tapped the man's shoulder to stop the beginning of yet another rant he half considered permanently dealing with that particular knowledge deficiency right then and there, but with Dana standing next to him that urge was squelched immediately. She would definitely disapprove, and the XCOM personnel surrounding them probably wouldn't be thrilled either.

Completely unaware that one of his charges had just considered eating him, Dr. Shen apologized for his distraction. "Sorry," he said, "I've always been irked by that thing. Why spend so much on an expensive holographic display when you can just use screens? So inefficient." Still grumbling the engineer moved on towards the next room, his motley tour group trailing behind him.

Overall, Mercer was unimpressed. He'd been promised a job killing aliens, and instead all he saw was a bunch of technicians working on computers. Dana was interested in it since they were apparently using all sorts of advanced programs to monitor alien activity, but the elder Mercer didn't have much love for computers. At this point he'd be relieved if these XCOM guys did turn on them, since then he'd at least have something to do besides glare menacingly at security cameras.

Fortunately for him and probably everyone else within at least a mile radius, the next room looked considerably less boring. Weapons lined the walls, some familiar and some not, the latter category mostly occupied by a series of rather boxy looking instruments. There were also half a dozen or so sets of body armor that seemed to match with what he'd seen the soldiers in earlier. This was easy enough to confirm, since a quick glance at Vampire showed he was wearing it.

"As you've probably already guessed, this is our main armory," said Shen, noticing Mercer's interest, "The more conventional weapons are supplied for us, but as you can see we've made quite a few improvements of our own." As he spoke the engineer picked up one of the boxy objects, and with a low hum it came to life. A red light began to glow from within as it quickly elongated, transforming into the more oblong shape easily recognizable as that of a rifle.

"This is the RS Sunray Portable High-Energy Laser, but you can just call it the laser rifle," he said, offering the siblings the weapon to examine. Mercer snatched it up immediately, eliciting a stifled laugh from his sister as he fawned over it like a kid with a new toy. "After close study of the aliens' weaponry our scientists were able to copy some of their techniques, in this case how they handled heat dissipation and energy consumption. With the help of Dr. Vahlen my engineers created a working prototype, and soon afterward this rifle and a number of variations on it were put into production."

At this Vampire was dragged into the demonstration at the engineer's insistence, his weapon becoming the main attraction. "Lieutenant Ramirez here, our top sniper, uses a variant of the laser rifle specialized for long distance combat. Since bullets aren't required it doesn't need to be reloaded, although it does require a cooling period to prevent overheating. The compact power source it uses does have a limited lifespan, but regular rechargings here at the base between missions effectively negate that issue."

Handing the sniper back his rifle, Dr. Shen continued, "Although our supplies of these weapons are limited at the moment, we are well on our way to making them standard issue for our soldiers, of which you would be included if you choose to join our operation here."

For once the engineer had Mercer's nearly undivided attention, a state that was rather difficult to achieve when you weren't something he was trying to kill. Regardless, he was definitely done being bored after what Dr. Shen said next.

"Would you like to try it out yourself?"

* * *

Dana Mercer had been through a lot of weird shit in her life. She'd lived through a zombie apocalypse, her brother had turned into a betentacled amnesiac, she'd spent most of the last seven years living under various pseudonyms to prevent secret agents from busting down her door, and she'd had to prop buckets of water over the window sills in her apartment for nearly a month to stop her brother from using them as doors. Even so, this latest turn of events definitely made the list.

Although she considered herself less paranoid then Alex, when he first told her that his latest shenanigans had gotten him mixed up with a _friendly_ top secret military organization her initial reaction had understandingly been of disbelief. The fact that they wanted to hire him only worried her more, since he'd never been the best at working nicely with others even before he became a physics defying eldritch abomination.

So she'd gone to their secret base with him, and now both of them were in the aforementioned base about to test out some fucking laser guns. When they entered the next room Dana swore that Alex literally rippled with excitement when he saw the shooting gallery. There were fake buildings, tons of fake aliens, and what looked like an actual car parked near the back. Dr. Shen insisted on slowly explaining how to operate the laser rifle, but the moment the instructions were over Alex snatched it up and started taking potshots at the cutouts of various aliens with his new favorite toy.

It took him a little while to adjust to the new weapon, but before long Alex was sniping targets at the very end of the range. Somehow the ever stoic lieutenant got dragged into things, and after the sniper shot the head off of a target Alex had been aiming at the two of them started getting a little competitive.

Ten minutes later there wasn't a single intact target, not to mention, half the range was in flames. Alex had gotten a bit overenthusiastic near the end, and it turned out that the lone car in the back didn't respond well to repeated laser strikes. The resulting explosion took out all the cardboard aliens behind it, but it had also resulted in a lot of fire.

Fortunately, explosions and fire seemed to be a frequent occurrence in the range, since a well-placed extinguisher system activated almost immediately to put it out. Unfortunately, after the smoke cleared her brother was nowhere to be seen.

"Good shot," said Vampire, turning towards where Alex had been, "Not everyone thinks to shoot the car on their first … wait, where'd you go?"

It was then that he noticed the sudden hail of tiny chunks of concrete, prompting him and everyone else to look up. To the surprise of the soldier and the engineer but the exasperation of the journalist, Alex was on the ceiling. Black spikes from his hands and feet impaled the concrete, and at least his sister could tell that he was as surprised as they were to be up there.

Careful not to dislodge any larger pieces of the ceiling, Alex withdrew his spikes and landed feet first on the ground. The others stared, but he pretended not to notice and merely dusted off the bits of concrete on his jacket. When they continued to stare he grudgingly gave an explanation.

"It just startled me a little," he admitted, crossing his arms and hiding his face in his hood, "I forgot how loud things are indoors." Dana laughed and ignored the glare he gave her. Sometimes he really did act like he was just seven years old.

"Well," said Dr. Shen, adjusting his glasses, "That was, interesting to say the least. Anyway, the commander's meeting should be over in a few minutes. Would you two like to come with me to discuss the details of your employment here?"

Dana nodded, but Alex was still too busy pouting to respond. Sighing to herself, she turned to her brother, "Hey Zeus, can you just chill down here for a while? Relax, shoot some more targets, don't freak the fuck out on anybody?" He barely nodded, but for her it was good enough. "Good, you stay here and I'll go talk to this commander guy."

As she and Dr. Shen left the room Alex continued to sulk, but she was confident he would do as she'd said. For once things actually seemed to be going well for them, something that made her both optimistic and suspicious. Perhaps that was warranted, since as they approached the commander's room she couldn't help hear the sounds of shouting coming from within.


End file.
